Fidel and the ten dollar bill green american

http://history1900s.about.com/library/photos/blycastro.htm

A 1940 letter to Franklin D. Roosevelt, President of the United States, from Fidel Castro, budding dictator, asking :

"If you like, give me a ten dollar bill green american... because never I have not seen a ten dollar bill green american and I would like to have one of them."

I guess it never hurts to ask.

btw Is Castro dead yet?

If Castro were born into the internet age maybe he'd have become a Nigerian scam spammer. Or if he has himself cloned. A mini-Fidel.

Christmas nears

Christmas nears and I have a list of things to do and no shopping done but apparently I have time for this.

click to enlarge
or sans the awful color.

Roland the red nosed dino had a very shiny nose. All of the other reindeer used to laugh and call him names so he ate them. He's also sensitive about his overbite so don't mention it. He likes carrots and has problems with impulse control.

Japan looking East

a few japanese drawings made during Commodore Perry's opening of Japan to trade in 1853-54.


Hiroshige woodblock drawing - That flag is wrong. Quite wrong. Too many stripes and interestingly, it was apparently looked upon as not a field of stars but as a print pattern. It is probably the USS Saratoga. It had 10 gun ports but it seems the artist may have decided to put the 10 gun ports in 2 rows.


Perry's ship the USS Mississippi was a hybrid sail / steam ship. The smokestack in the drawing appears made of wood or brick probably because that was the expected material for a chimney. Note the eyes on the ships masthead and stern: a black iris and a white sclera surrounded by a ring of blue. After all, it was the ship of the blue eyed barbarians - what else would blue-eyed refer to?
The Japanese vision of the USS Mississippi is fierce.


"I can pinch an inch, manboob-san!"


Japanese drawing of Commodore Perry. Not sure if I see the resemblance. Note the eyelids. I am slightly disturbed by the facial hair.